Chocolate-containing sweets sold loose such as those sold under the M&M's® brand are known. These are chocolate-coated peanuts carrying an outer colored sugar-based layer. Such sweets are made by coating the peanuts with a liquid chocolate preparation and then solidify the thus formed layer. After this, the outer sugar-based layer is applied and polished.
However, this method suffers from some imperfections. Thus, the sweets obtained are relatively hard to the tooth. Now, if it is desired to incorporate them into a preparation such as an ice-cream or biscuit, the difference in hardness between the sweet and the remainder of the preparation produces a sensation that consumers find disagreeable.
Further, this method proves difficult to apply when coating central cores smaller than peanuts. Applying liquid chocolate on to small, lightweight particles is a delicate operation as the coating composition is required to have certain special characteristics as regards viscosity. This now means the liquid chocolate composition has to be changed leading to a product which is not satisfactory to the consumer or even not in line with legislation on chocolate products.
We could add that this solution consisting in breaking up M&M's® sweets to reduce their size produces an unacceptable aesthetic result as this is not the same thing as the same sweets scaled down.
One aim of the invention is to provide a method for preparing chocolate sweets of the same type as the known ones, but which are less hard and optionally of smaller size.